Related

Conor McGregor is headed back to court and, no matter what happens, it should provide some indication of whether or not fight fans should expect to see him competing any time soon.

McGregor is set to appear in court on Thursday for a hearing related to charges stemming from his attack on a bus full of UFC fighters at the Barclays Center in early April.

Dmitriy Shakhnevich, a Brooklyn-based criminal defence attorney and host of the Fight Lawyer podcast, said the appearance is unlikely to take more than a couple minutes and could result in a number of different courses of action moving forward.

“On Thursday, he’s going to find out whether or not he was indicted,” Shakhnevich said. “In every felony case in New York, there has to be a grand jury panel … in order to see if there’s a reasonable cause to proceed to trial.”

Of course, the judge could also decide to simply schedule another court appearance for later in the year in order to allow McGregor’s legal team to work out a plea deal. Whether such a deal is reached on Thursday or at a later date, Shakhnevich said it remains the most likely outcome to McGregor’s legal troubles.

While pleading not guilty and attempting to be cleared of wrongdoing is possible, a plea deal would probably allow McGregor’s legal team to agree on a resolution that prevented him from having any issues travelling in and out of the U.S. — something that’s obviously important for a fighter who makes tens of millions of dollars fighting in the country.

“He has to end the case in a certain way so he can be allowed to reenter the country, which I’m sure his lawyers are aware of and will probably do,” Shakhnevich said. “If he’s indicted and he takes a hard position that he’s going to plead not-guilty, which I would be shocked if that would happen, then it’s only the beginning.

“The plea deal can typically involve a plea to a reduced charge. In this case, it could be the misdemeanours, there’s a bunch of them on there, or they could plea him to a violation — a very low level offence that would preserve immigration and that would (avoid) a criminal record.”

So, while a plea deal is the most likely outcome, the most unlikely is that the charges are brought to trial and that McGregor ultimately finds himself serving any sort of time in prison.

“The thing to remember is it’s very, very highly likely that he’ll avoid jail time,” Shakhnevich said. “If I was a prosecutor, I’d try to get him into some sort of anger management or some sort of community service to help the community and educate children or do something to really help the general public.

“Sending him to jail would make a nice headline, but it wouldn’t really serve the public interest. There’s no reason to have this guy in jail, he could do a lot better outside of jail. It will very likely be a plea deal at some point, maybe tomorrow. If I was his lawyer I’d try to get rid of this very quickly so he can get back to work.”

WILL BE A WHILE

Don’t expect to see Paige VanZant back in the octagon anytime soon.

The women’s strawweight contender has been out of action since she broke her arm in a loss to Jessica-Rose Clark in January, and while initial estimates suggested she could return within six months, that timetable has now been pushed back due to a failed surgery.

“Unfortunately and sadly have to inform all of my fans who have been standing by my side that my arm surgery has failed,” VanZant wrote on Instagram. “For whatever reason my bone still is totally broken in my arm and shows no sign of healing or progression.

“All that we can guess is that I went back to training too quickly and didn’t give my arm the proper time to heal.”

While VanZant isn’t currently considered a top contender in the women’s 115-pound division, she remains a major draw for the UFC. Whenever she is ready to return, there won’t be any shortage of opponents waiting for her.

WOODLEY’S MAD

For most of his time as the UFC’s welterweight champion, Tyron Woodley has chosen to ignore questions about Colby Covington.

This week, though, he’s finally decided to take some shots at Covington, who is arguably the most repulsive person in the promotion.

Covington won the UFC’s interim welterweight championship this weekend by beating Rafael dos Anjos, and that was enough to finally push Woodley to respond to Covington’s taunts.

“He’s not on my level and he never will be on my level,” Woodley said in a Twitter video. “Now we are at the point where it’s my duty to f— him up. It’s almost my job as a martial artist, for whatever I stand for.”

Woodley and Covington both train at American Top Team, and Woodley added that once he beat his rival he would request that Covington be banned from the gym.

This Week's Flyers

Comments

We encourage all readers to share their views on our articles and blog posts. We are committed to maintaining a lively but civil forum for discussion, so we ask you to avoid personal attacks, and please keep your comments relevant and respectful. If you encounter a comment that is abusive, click the "X" in the upper right corner of the comment box to report spam or abuse. We are using Facebook commenting. Visit our FAQ page for more information.